


Swing Me

by teaberryblue



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 17:18:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaberryblue/pseuds/teaberryblue





	Swing Me

_“Look…at…me…” he whispered.  
  
The green eyes found black, but after a second..._ Severus' vision began to swim, and he tried to hold onto the image, tried to focus on Lily's eyes...  
  
His last thought before he died was the brutal reminder that those eyes didn't _belong_ to Lily.   
  
There might have been a brief moment of blackness, of nothing, of simple and unadulterated peace, no consciousness, no thought, no guilt or bitterness, but then, slowly and surely, his vision returned, first whiteness from black, and then pale blurs, shadows on light, that bled into blues and greens and browns.   
  
"Lily, don't do it!" came an all-too-familiar, high-pitched shriek, and it was just at that moment that Severus recognized the scene.   
  
The playground.  
  
The little girl flew from the swing, red hair flying in the air even as she hovered so slightly and game down in a graceful ballerina landing.  
  
She frowned at him, warily, looking up at the pale-faced man.   
  
"Time has _not_ been good to you," she informed him.   
  
He laughed, bitterly, and covered his face with one of his thin, bony, calloused hands, spindly fingers reaching for his temples.   
  
He could not answer her.  
  
The girl tipped her head from side to side, eyeing him solemnly with the same eyes he had stared into only moments before.   
  
She sighed, huffed, blowing a strand of orange hair from her freckled face. "What, are you just going to stand there?" she asked him. "Isn't this what you've been waiting for all these years?"   
  
This was some kind of trick. It must be. The snake's venom...  
  
He dropped his hand from his face, fingers curling into tight fists, a sneer turning up his mouth. "What _is_ this?" he demanded hotly, hearing the virulence in his own tone, aching even as he spoke to direct it at _that_ face.  
  
But she was still serene. "This is it, Sev. Eternity. I mean, not _Eternity_ eternity, but...you're dead. Kaput. Sprung off the mortal coil. And I hear you got it pretty bad. Snake, huh? But the _really_ sad thing is that even after almost twenty years, I'm the only person you've got to greet you."  
  
She was a teenager now, those Muggle tooth-braces glinting silver in the sun, a rubbed-red acne scar on her nose, her hair pulled back from her face with a wide headband. Her two pale, red-headed eyebrows arched upward as she inspected him with a chastening expression, walking a narrow circle around him. "I really hoped you'd change."   
  
"Change?" he demanded, stiffening in defense at the accusation. "I spent the last seven _years_ taking care of your stubborn, intolerable _ass_ of a son, and--"  
  
"Oh, so imagine that," said Lily, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. "I didn't even _marry_ you, and he _still_ took after you! How did that _happen_?"   
  
"ME? He's just like his father," Severus answered, hissing the words as he spoke. "I still don't understand why you ever had anything to do with that ass."  
  
Lily gave him a rather dry look. "Because he didn't call me a mudblood, Sev," she answered. She had grown older still, nearing the age she had been the last time he'd seen her, just out of school, shortly before she died. "You think I haven't been watching my own kid? We can do that from here, you know. He doesn't listen, he says things he regrets, he's always certain he's right, he acts like a royal _prat_...he's got more in common with you than you think. He just made better friends than you did." Her tone and expression softened with the words, her eyes washing sympathy over him.   
  
And he let his hands relax finally, but he looked at the ground-- he couldn't look her in the eyes now. "I didn't need friends," he said. "I had you."  
  
"Everybody needs friends, Sev."   
  
He raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm dead, aren't I?" he demanded. "Is it _absolutely_ necessary that I spend the rest of my otherwise remarkably pleasant afterlife hearing a _lecture_ on all my terrible and countless shortcomings?"   
  
Lily grinned and laughed at him. "Hey, I don't get to choose what you get. It's your subconscious. C'mon," she urged, starting up the hill. "Swing me. There's no Petunia in your afterlife."  
  
"Thank Merlin for small blessings."


End file.
